On this day in 1844, the House honored Dolley Madison, the widow of the nation’s fourth president, James Madison. Acting by unanimous consent, the lawmakers, in a rare gesture, voted to grant the former first lady a seat on the House floor whenever she chose to visit the chamber.

Dolley Madison was a frequent visitor to the Capitol. She was greeted on this day by Reps. Romulus Saunders of North Carolina and Charles Ingersoll of Pennsylvania. They subsequently reported on the visit to the House, attaching her note.

“Permit me to thank you, gentlemen,” the presidential widow wrote, “as the [two-member] committee … for the great gratification you have this day conferred upon me by the delivery of the favor from the honorable body, allowing me a seat within its hall. I shall be proud to recollect it, as a token of their remembrance, collectively and individually, of one who has gone before us.”

Whether Dolley Madison ever again utilized her seldom granted floor privileges, isn’t known. Aside from members and their staffs, committee staffs, front-desk workers and pages, floor privileges are currently extended to only the president and vice president, members of the Cabinet, governors, Supreme Court justices, senior military officers, the architect of the Capitol and the mayor of the District of Columbia.

Former members of Congress also have floor privileges, but since 1945 the House has followed the Rayburn rule, named after Speaker Sam Rayburn (D-Texas), which bars former lawmakers from the floor during any proceedings in which they have a personal or business interest.

After James Madison’s death in 1836, Congress authorized a $30,000 payment to Dolley Madison to fund publication of three volumes of the late president’s papers. In 1848, when Dolley Madison was deeply in debt, the lawmakers bought the rest of the papers from her for $25,000.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE HOUSE HISTORIAN AND HOUSE OFFICE OF ART AND ARCHIVES; “A MORE PERFECT UNION: DOLLEY MADISON AND THE CREATION OF THE AMERICAN NATION,” BY CATHERINE ALLGOR (2006)